Farmtrac and Montana tractors questions.

Saw some Montanas that looked like the old Ford farmtrac series. Did they take over the plant?

They are built in S Korea. I talked to a dist and he was impressed at their quality and the factory. We have a local dealer who sells them and is satisfied as he has been in the implement business forever. He sells HESSTON,AGRO and Farmhand.

Montana aquired what was left of Farmtrac back in Decemeber, I think. They annouced a few days ago that they would be relocating there business office from the current home in Arkansas to Farmtrac's old headqaurters in Tarboro, NC. I have no idea if Montana will resume marketing of the old Farmtrac lines.

Tarboro was the headquarters of the Long tractors in the 70's, wasn't it? They were made in Romania, as I recall- local guy was the dealer, and he sold a bunch of them- many are still working in the area. Is there any tie-in?

Yep, Tarboro was HQ for Long tractors, which then became Long Agri, which then became Farmtrac, which went belly up in January of '08, then went into receivership, and was aquired by by Montana tractors in December of '08, which is moving it's Springdale, Ark HQ to Tarboro, NC to take over the old Farmtrac(Long) HQ.

I'm not completly clear on all of it, so some of what I'm about to type might not be completly correct. Most of the old Long tractors were built by Universal(UTB) in Poland/Romania or somewhere there abouts.

Then came along some of Longs newer compact models that were made in South Korea by LS tractor and then the Farmtrac(Looks a lot like the older Fords, in fact, Escorts started a long running relationship with Ford tractors in 1965) that were made in India by a company called Escorts. Some models crossed over with names meaning some Farmtracs were Korean made and some Longs were Indian made and possibly some were still European, but I think Long/Farmtrac stopped the Polish made tractors in the late 90's, but that's just an assumption.

Either way, the Korean made LS tractors are suppose to be some really high quality units(They make a lot of different tractors for a lot of different people, the new Montana's are just one example), while the Indian made Farmtracs were a small step backwards in qaulity, then followed by the Universial tractors. That being said, they are a lot of OLD Long(Universial) tractors still puttering around here, doing an honest days work.

Clear as mud, Huh? Truth is, there were so many different models made by so many different companies that were rebadged for more companies, I don't know if anybody actually has it complelty straight. But I'm pretty sure most of my info is at least in the ballpark.

Long made a lot of tobacco barns and equipment, and we have a Long bush-hog that has been very tough. They sold eastern European tractors, but they also bought and sold other ones. A friend of mine has a Long that has Nuffield stamped all over it.